ROME – A total of 29 people have been arrested on charges of drug dealing and four more have been put under house arrest, police officials report. This is the result of an anti-drug dealing operation that was mobilised by the Provincial Command of Rome, in the capital’s peripheral Tor Bella Monaca district.

 Investigations carried out by the officers of the Tor Bella Monaca police station have revealed that heading the operation is a 24-year old Roman man who has been giving detailed tasks and time schedules to a wide-reaching network of drug-dealers within the capital. The trafficking was taking place in entrance halls and courtyards of populated blocks of flats, with this illegal drug pushing even taking place in front of children.

 From first light, police officers have been giving out arrest warrants, issued by the GIP (Judicial office for preliminary investigations)of the Roman law court, under orders from the DDA (the Anti-mafia organisation of the district. This is in an effort to sniff out 33 suspects alleged to be members of a criminal drug-trafficking organisation that is deeply embedded in Rome, whose operational and logistical base is purported to be located in the Tor Bella Monaca district.

 It is also reported that there are young people engaged as lookouts who are in constant telephone contact with the drug dealers, warning them of the arrival of police forces. In the case of their arrest, the organisation guaranteed pushers legal safeguard with the supply of “benefits” to support their family, a sum determined by the severity of arrest and which also covered legal fees.

DT